Tsuji v. Fleet
Plaintiffs injured in a 2014 crash sued the deceased tortfeasor's estate and his employer more than three years after his death, seeking recovery only up to the limits of the decedent's casualty insurance. The Florida Supreme Court held that section 733.710(1)'s two-year jurisdictional statute of nonclaim absolutely bars such claims — there is no casualty-insurance exception imported from section 733.702(4)(b) — and that because the estate is exonerated, the employer cannot be held vicariously liable. The Court approved the First District's decision and expressly disapproved Pezzi v. Brown (4th DCA 1997).
Key facts
- Plaintiffs injured in a 2014 vehicle crash sued the deceased tortfeasor's estate and his employer more than three years after the tortfeasor's death, seeking recovery limited to the decedent's casualty insurance policy limits.
- The trial court dismissed the claims against the estate as barred by Florida's two-year statute of nonclaim, and the estate's exoneration eliminated vicarious liability against the employer.
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Why it matters
This resolves a long-standing district conflict and eliminates the widely assumed 'casualty insurance' workaround for claims filed more than two years after a tortfeasor's death — plaintiffs' counsel must now file in… — full analysis with a trial
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